Efficacy of Tulathromycin in the prevention of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in stocker cattle in Italy

A randomised clinical study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of Tulathromycin in time prevention of bovine respiratory disease (BRD), in typical Italian breeding conditions. For the enrolment in the study 214 male cattle. weighing 357 to 546 kg, were imported from France. At arrival, all the animals were vaccinated, dewormed and managed as per normal farm practices. In the first days following the arrival of the animals to the farm, the BRD outbreak was confirmed by clinical and microbiological assessments (presence of P multocida, El. somni e M. bovis) on 18 animals with respiratory signs, then, all the animals were treated with Tulathromycin (G1 = 96) or Tilmicosin (G2 = 97) in commercial formulations and following the label instructions. In the two weeks following the treatment, Tulathromycin showed an high efficacy in BRD prevention (97,8%). significantly higher than Tilmicosin (89.1%, p = 0,0326). The comparison of daily weight gain of the two groups showed an overall improvement of production performance of the animals treated with Tulathromycin (average body weight = 537 kg, IPG = 1,69 kg/day) when compared to those treated with Tilmicosin (average body weight = 530 kg, IPG = 1,57 kg/day). The lack of statistical significance of this data suggest further investigations by increasing the sample size.